undertone
Evy Babic (Nina Kiri, "Fingernails," TV's 'The Handmaid's Tale') is tied to her home caring for her unresponsive, dying mother (Michèle Duquet, "The Virgin Suicides"). Evy's main connection to the outside world is her friend Justin (voice of Adam DiMarco), the believer, who is about to introduce Evy, the skeptic, to ten disturbing audio recordings he received in an email to analyze on their paranormal podcast "undertone."
Laura's Review: C+
Feature debuting writer/director Ian Tuason exhibits artful visual and aural technique in a film that builds suspense without offering much in the way of payoff. "undertone" may satisfy those who haven't seen a lot of horror films, but those who have will recognize influences from many others thrown together in a climactic jumble that doesn't quite satisfy the mystery it has created.
With a background in 3D sound for VR content (watch his 3:00am short here - move your cursor for the full effect), Tuason originally conceived "undertone" as a radio play, so it is fitting that the first thing we are aware of is sound, that of the labored breathing of a dying woman accompanied by the sound of someone singing 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.' Evy, who was singing the lullaby her mother used to sing to her, will consult with a home care nurse about how much longer her mother has to live, the nurse describing what Evy understands is the death rattle.
But all sound is eliminated when Evy puts her headphones on, a disorienting effect that also makes her vulnerable until she connects with Justin in the wee hours, their podcast recordings laid down around 3 a.m. before he heads to work. After asking how everything is going, Justin tells Evy he got a very interesting email from an unknown source with ten audio clips attached. He starts recording and they listen to the first clip.
What they will progress through in multiple sessions are recordings made by Mike (voice of Jeff Yung) of his expectant wife Jessa (voice of Keana Lyn Bastidas) talking in her sleep, additional suggestive background noise becoming increasingly eerie. The first clip features 'London Bridge Is Falling Down,' which prompts Justin to begin to listen for messages playing the recordings backwards in addition to researching the origins of this and other nursery rhymes which follow, 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,' of course being one of them. But when Justin insists he hears things in the backwards play, Evy does not, suggesting he is experiencing audio apophenia, finding patterns where there are none. But even we can hear 'looking to lick the blood off' and what Evy neglects to tell Justin is that some of the things they hear on those clips, like water turning on by itself, are starting to occur in her home.
As the film progresses, we learn more and more about Evy and what appears to have been the complicated relationship between a very religious mother and a non-believer. At one point, Evy's boyfriend Darren (voice of Ryan Turner) urges her to come out for a few hours for a party and she acquiesces, but just as she's about to leave, she discovers mama has soiled herself, delaying her departure. After assuring the woman she'll be back in a few hours, we don't see Evy return until daylight and she finds her mother face down on the bedroom floor. Later, she'll call to make an appointment for a pregnancy test and the results are what we'd expect. A bottle of Irish whiskey in a dining room hutch is broken out, but she'll deny drinking when Justin asks her if she is 'again,' a troubled past implied.
Cinematographer Graham Beasley and production designer Mercedes Coyle work together to keep the single location visually interesting. Coyle has dressed Tuason's own childhood Toronto home with old fashioned decor featuring a lot of religious items downstairs where Evy podcasts, while upstairs, mama's terrain, is more sterile and brightly lit. A natural 'split screen' is achieved using the dividing wall which separates the home's living and dining areas from the curving stairs leading upwards, the kitchen seen through a passage by the stairs, the better to notice lights going out and water coming on. Beasley's work is vivid, framing Evy in ways that make her vulnerable and our eyes peer into shadowy doorways and hallways.
But as Evy and Justin progress to the last clips in that email, the address of which Justin realizes spells Abyzou backwards, the demon who takes children and a name Jessa has spoken in her sleep, things begin to spiral into madness. Live calls are taken (a lot of people appear to be up at 3 a.m., including Evy's doctor), a young man from Evy's home town claiming to have known Mike and Jess who suffered a terrible fate. Justin doesn't want to play the last clip, but Evy insists and the last chaotic minutes of the film reference everything from "The Blair Witch Project" to "Paranormal Activity" to every movie where someone's scribbled demonic drawings in black and red. It's as if the filmmaker's thrown everything at the wall to see what sticks, presenting intriguing concepts only to leave them by the wayside and leaving us with more questions than answers. If Evy probably doesn't want the child she is carrying and her mother is surely pro-life, just what is the threat? Tuason shows a lot of promise in his craftsmanship, but needs to work on his narrative.
A24 releases "undertone" in theaters on 3/13/26.
